Don’t forget to claim your complimentary ticket to the State Fair! All you need to do is signup for a stint at our booth spreading the message of liberty. It’s a great year to help out: not only are we back in the Education Building (no more tractor pull noise!), but there you will have a chance to meet some of the nearly 50 LPNC candidates on the ballot this year. It’s good work, it’s fun…and you can enjoy the Fair for the rest of the day on us.

Libertarian Party of NC celebrates the freedom of Coming Out DayThe ultimate measure of liberty is the ability to live your true life

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina (LPNC) joins lovers of liberty everywhere in celebrating Coming Out Day, the national observance dedicated to members of the LGBTQ community who feel empowered to discuss their orientation with friends, loved ones, and colleagues.

“For a long time people have praised the courage it takes to come out,” said LPNC Chair Susan Hogarth. “It’s still a brave thing to do, but it shouldn’t have to be. Today we celebrate that America is a free country where being yourself shouldn’t have to be an act of courage -- just an act of truth.”

“The very first national Libertarian Party platform in 1972 championed gay rights and same-sex marriage,” Hogarth noted. “It took the Democratic Party 40 years to catch up. As North Carolina voters count down to Election Day, we hope they’ll remember which party has been the home of real liberty for its entire existence.”

Robyn Pegram, a Libertarian candidate for the North Carolina General Assembly in District 36 in southern Wake County, has posted a video in which she takes Coming Out Day as an opportunity to reflect on her own experiences. See her story on her campaign Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/robyn4nc36/.

Common Cause asked candidates for the General Assembly to pledge to support the creation of an independent, nonpartisan redistricting process for Congressional and legislative districts in the 2019 legislative session.

The results are in. I’m proud to say Libertarians had the highest percentage of yes pledges: 33 (of 34) Libertarian candidates said yes; 120 (of 169) Democrats said yes; only 26 (of 170) Republicans said yes. One other Republican responded “Yes-Maybe.” I counted him as a yes. In addition, one unaffiliated and one Constitution Party candidate said yes.

Conspicuously absent from the yes pledges, however, are the leaders of the old establishment parties, Republicans Rep. Tim Moore, current House Speaker, Sen. Phil Berger, current Senate president pro tem, and his presumptive Democratic successor Sen. Dan Blue.

For those of you who know how the legislature really works, unless the majority party leaders support on a bill, it won’t go anywhere. And it doesn’t matter what party it is.

Rep. David Lewis, House elections committee chair, who would presumably remain a major voice in that body if Republicans retain control, was openly hostile to the pledge. He responded, “It can’t be done.”

No, it cannot. So long as the establishment parties control the legislature and partisan loyalists chair committees.

William “Beau” Meredith was the Libertarian candidate to represent District 49, which includes Asheville and northern Buncombe County, in the North Carolina State Senate. On July 28, he lost his life in an automobile accident in Colorado. He was 49.

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina is joined in sorrow at Beau’s passing and offers its respects to his family. To honor him, we share this reminiscence from his longtime friend and fellow party member Bernard Baruch Carman.

William Beau Meredith

June 17, 1969 – July 28, 2018

William, or “Beau” as he was commonly called by his friends, was in a horrible automobile wreck on July 28 that claimed his life at the young age of 49.

News of this tragedy came as a shock to all his friends, and of course the brunt was felt by his mother, Linda, who received the phone call that morning from the authorities. His family held a private reception in Charlotte, and a memorial included the spreading of Beau’s ashes here in the WNC mountains that he loved so much—the place he resided and called “home” for the majority of his adult life.